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From the Editors

Spring-Summer 2016

When The New Yorker launched in 1925, the cover of the magazine’s first issue featured the dandy Eustace Tilley striking a very Manhattan-esque pose … impeccably dressed, with silk top hat and monocle in hand, he prepares to study a friendly little butterfly. The magazine’s style and tone seems captured in that iconic image: sophisticated, elegant, interested in everything … even the small, fascinating details of daily life.

In keeping with that spirit, we asked illustrator John Francis to pay homage to The New Yorker’s cover—it seemed appropriate considering that the keynote speaker for this year’s 69th Annual Commencement is Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Remnick, who has served as The New Yorker’s editor since 1998.

We didn’t just decide on the cover because of Remnick, though; we thought the cover should also reflect the intellectual engagement of everyone in our community, especially the many writers who live and work on campus and off.

We present you in this issue with a roundup of new and forthcoming books from our faculty and alumni. Considering our smaller size in comparison, say, to Stanford or University of Chicago, the number of books and the variety produced by CMC’s community is incredible. It seemed deserving of the spotlight in this issue, especially as many people are planning what to read in the remaining weeks of summer— not only for pleasure, but also to study something new.

Finally, some in our audience may ask about the cover, where’s the Athena? We certainly don’t want anyone to think we have intentionally overlooked this mascot and the College’s move to coeducation in the 1970s. The reason for the cover image was simple: the CMC Stag, like the New Yorker’s dandy, was there in the College’s earliest days (see Endpapers, page 44). That was the inspiration behind this cover—a nod back to the College’s beginning.

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